Startup Challenges X Corp for Rights to the Twitter Brand

Operation Bluebird, led by Illinois attorney Michael Peroff and former Twitter trademark director Stephen Coates, filed the petition last week. The startup contends that X Corp. demonstrated a clear intent to discard the Twitter brand when it rebranded the service to X and replaced the iconic bird logo in 2023. They point to public statements by Musk as evidence of a permanent shift away from the original identity. To support its bid, the group has applied to use the “Twitter” mark for a new site, Twitter.new, which promises AI-driven moderation and tools modeled after the legacy platform.

Legal experts remain divided on the outcome. Northeastern University law professor Alexandra Roberts noted that while the abandonment argument has merit, X Corp. may successfully defend its rights through the concept of residual goodwill. Because users continue to colloquially refer to the platform as Twitter and its posts as tweets, the brand retains strong consumer association. Intellectual property attorney Douglas Masters expressed further skepticism, suggesting that X Corp. is unlikely to have intended to forfeit all commercial rights to the name. With X given until February to respond, the dispute could trigger a multi-year legal battle that tests the limits of trademark law in the digital age.